Fascism

Fascism is defined as "a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation, and often race, above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition." (Merriam-Webster)

Trump's campaign began with an attack on Mexicans and mobilized under the slogan of Make America Great Again. His early moves after his inauguration hold many of the hallmarks of fascism.

Philippine Dictator who has been indiscriminately murdering thousands of accused "drug users" says Trump called and told him he was tackling drug problems 'the right way.'cnn.com(See also Presidential Transition)

Historians and speechwriters describe the speech as one of the most ominous inaugural addresses ever, reinforcing familiar campaign themes of American decline, in contrast to the inspirational speeches of his predecessors.

Hours after Trump criticizes as “fake news” organizations that publish anonymously sourced reports that reflect poorly on him, including those tying his associates to Russia, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer bars many major news organizations from a White House briefing.nytimes.com(See also Attempts to Discredit Media, Sean Spicer)

After Senator Richard Blumenthal voiced support on television for continuing the investigation into Russian meddling in last year's election, and expressed concern about the Justice Department’s increased focus on rooting out administration officials who leak information damaging to Trump, the President tweeted that the Senator was "a phony Vietnam con artist," and that "he cried like a baby."washingtonpost.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior, Russian Meddling in Election)

The quasi-propaganda videos are made in Trump Tower, overseen by the president’s daughter-in-law, and using campaign cash to pay for them.

2017.08.08

The Justice Department has reversed its position in a high-profile voting case in Ohio, siding with the state in its effort to purge thousands of people from its rolls for not voting in recent elections.washingtonpost.com(See also Department of Justice, Jeff Sessions)

The move is part of a broader campaign by the Trump administration to support restrictions on who is eligible to vote, a radical change in philosophy from the previous Justice Department, which sued a number of states over voting laws that it deemed discriminatory against minorities.

U.S. prosecutors prevailed in their request to seek information about subscribers to an anti-Trump website allegedly linked to rioting during the inauguration.bloomberg.com(See also Legal Activity, Criminality)

A judge in District of Columbia Superior Court on Thursday ordered DreamHost LLC, the host of the website disruptj20.org, to comply with a government warrant seeking information about the site’s subscribers.

2017.08.27

The Trump administration Monday lifted a controversial ban on the transfer of surplus military equipment to police departments whose battlefield-style response to rioting in a St. Louis suburb three years ago prompted a halt to the program.usatoday.com(See also Domestic Policy)

The new plan takes effect immediately and fully rolls back an Obama administration executive order that blocked armored vehicles, large-caliber weapons, ammunition and other heavy equipment from being re-purposed from foreign battlefields to America's streets.

2017.08.28

Donald Trump signed an executive order rescinding former President Barack Obama's restrictions on the transfer of military-style equipment from the Department of Defense to local law enforcement agencies.politico.com(See also Department of Defense, Jeff Sessions)

The Justice Department is demanding that Facebook turn over information from three accounts that could provide access to the personal details of thousands of activists who expressed interest in anti-Trump rallies.nbcnews.com(See also Assaults on Civil Liberties)

2017.10.03

The Trump Administration launched what it called the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) hotline, with a stated mission to “provide proactive, timely, adequate, and professional services to victims of crimes committed by removable aliens,” but internal logs of calls to VOICE show that hundreds of Americans seized on the hotline to lodge secret accusations against acquaintances, neighbors, or even their own family members, often to advance petty personal grievances.splinternews.com(See also Immigration)

The commission has asked state election officials to share specific voter information, voters' felony conviction history, voter history, and partial Social Security numbers, along with a host of other details.

2017.10.05

Despite the fact that only half of Puerto Ricans had access to drinking water and only 5% of the island has electricity, FEMA has removed any statistics about drinking water access and electricity in Puerto Rico from its website.washingtonpost.com(See also Assaults on Facts)

2017.10.09

A judge ordered the web hosting company DreamHost to redact identifying information about visitors to a website used to coordinate a protest during Donald Trump’s inauguration, imposing further limits on an extensive warrant obtained by the Justice Department that initially aimed to collect visitors’ IP addresses.gizmodo.com(See also Assaults on Civil Liberties, Department of Justice)

2017.10.17

Republican Senator John McCain implicitly excoriated Donald Trump's administration and supporters, saying that "to refuse the obligations of international leadership ... for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism ... is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past."buzzfeed.com(See also Nationalism)

Federal regulators rolled back decades-old rules, making it far easier for media outlets to be bought and sold — potentially leading to more newspapers, radio stations and television broadcasters being owned by just a small handful of companies.washingtonpost.com(See also Censorship, Assaults on Civil Liberties)

The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation’s top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in official documents being prepared for next year’s budget.washingtonpost.com(See also Assaults on Civil Liberties, Assaults on Facts)

Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden terms with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden terms are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

Republican U.S. Senator Jeff Flake castigated Donald Trump for his attacks on the media, saying Trump had embraced the despotic language of former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and inspired modern-day authoritarians.reuters.com(See also Nationalism, Assaults on Civil Liberties)

Brennan has so far resisted Trump’s demand, explaining in multiple conversations occurring this year and last that these arrangements are bound by contracts and must be reviewed by a regulatory commission. She has told the president that the Amazon relationship is beneficial for the Postal Service and gave him a set of slides that showed the variety of companies, in addition to Amazon, that also partner for deliveries.

Legal experts said President Trump’s promise of intervention had little precedent, and could force a clash between the sitting president and his Justice Department.

2018.05.24

Donald Trump, when speaking about new rules that the NFL has imposed said, "You have to stand proudly for the national anthem or you shouldn’t be playing, you shouldn’t be there — maybe you shouldn’t be in the country."axios.com(See also Nationalism, Assaults on Civil Liberties)

2018.07.02

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is creating a new Denaturalization Task Force, designed to revoke the citizenship of American citizens and deport them, based on what they claim are "bad naturalization cases."wnycstudios.org(See also Immigration, Nationalism)

2018.07.19

Donald Trump's military parade in DC, currently scheduled for November 10th, is likely to cost nearly as much as the now canceled military exercise with South Korea that Trump called "tremendously expensive" and said cost "a fortune."cnn.com(See also North Korea, Hypocrisy)

In a remarkable rebuke to Donald Trump, 13 former U.S. intelligence chiefs have signed a harshly worded letter in support of former CIA Director John Brennan after Trump abruptly revoked his security clearance.latimes.com(See also Assaults on Government, Unprecedented Actions)

2018.08.28

Donald Trump warned evangelical leaders that Democrats “will overturn everything that we’ve done and they’ll do it quickly and violently” if Republicans lose control of Congress in the midterm elections.nytimes.com(See also False Statements)

2018.08.29

A growing number of people whose official birth records show they were born in the United States are now being denied passports — their citizenship suddenly thrown into question, as the Trump administration is accusing hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Hispanics along the border of using fraudulent birth certificates since they were babies, and it is undertaking a widespread crackdown.washingtonpost.com(See also Racism, Immigration)

The F.B.I. moved to quickly complete an abbreviated investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, even as Democrats demanded more information about the inquiry’s scope, warning that its apparent constraints could make it a “farce.”nytimes.com(See also Supreme Court, Women, False Statements)

Donald Trump told the White House counsel in the spring that he wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute two of his political adversaries: his 2016 challenger, Hillary Clinton, and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey.nytimes.com(See also Department of Justice, Legal Issues)

2018.11.21

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. defended the independence and integrity of the federal judiciary, rebuking Donald Trump for calling a judge who had ruled against his administration’s asylum policy “an Obama judge, saying that was a profound misunderstanding of the judicial role.nytimes.com(See also Supreme Court)

“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” he said in a statement. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”

2018.11.27

As the outrage toward the Trump administration’s harsh border policies escalated this week, Sinclair Broadcast Group required their roughly 200 local news outlets to air a defense of the Border Patrol’s use of tear gas against migrants crossing the border.mediaite.com(See also Assaults on Civil Liberties, Immigration)

2018.11.30

In a new move, the federal government has issued new guidance for the political activity of federal government workers, warning that weighing in on impeachment or talking about “the Resistance” may constitute prohibited activity.washingtonpost.com(See also Assaults on Civil Liberties)

The pattern has become a source of mounting concern to senior U.S. intelligence officials who had hoped that Trump, as he settled into office, would become less hostile to their work and more receptive to the information that spy agencies spend billions of dollars and sometimes put lives at risk gathering, yet presidential distrust extends beyond Russia to assessments on North Korea, Iran, climate change and the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

2018.12.21

Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from Syria was made hastily, without consulting his national security team or allies, and over strong objections from virtually everyone involved in the fight against the Islamic State group, agreeing to a withdrawal in a phone call with the Turkish President.apnews.com(See also Unpresidential Behavior, Syria, Foreign Policy, Department of State, Mike Pompeo)

George Prochnik–The New Yorker

In his Feb. 6, 2017, article, Prochnik examines Stefan Zweig's thoughts on the rise of Fascism in Germany and wonders:

how far along the scale of moral degeneration Zweig would judge America to be in its current state. We have a magnetic leader, one who lies continually and remorselessly—not pathologically but strategically, to placate his opponents, to inflame the furies of his core constituency, and to foment chaos. The American people are confused and benumbed by a flood of fake news and misinformation. Reading in Zweig’s memoir how, during the years of Hitler’s rise to power, many well-meaning people “could not or did not wish to perceive that a new technique of conscious cynical amorality was at work,” it’s difficult not to think of our own present predicament. Last week, as Trump signed a drastic immigration ban that led to an outcry across the country and the world, then sought to mitigate those protests by small palliative measures and denials, I thought of one other crucial technique that Zweig identified in Hitler and his ministers: they introduced their most extreme measures gradually—strategically—in order to gauge how each new outrage was received. “Only a single pill at a time and then a moment of waiting to observe the effect of its strength, to see whether the world conscience would still digest the dose,” Zweig wrote. “The doses became progressively stronger until all Europe finally perished from them.”